Bear Lake
Rich County, UtahView mapDirections
Utah DWQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Bear Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Limited data
Bear Lake in Rich County, Utah has water-quality measurements published by Utah DWQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 21.2 ft visibility.
Bear Lake is a lake in Rich County, Utah. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Utah DWQ, last sampled 2019-08-06. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Bear Lake on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
What Bear Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water21.2 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Bear Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Utah Division of Water Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Bear Lake
These are the measurements Utah DWQ publishes for Bear Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Crystal clear, you can see 21.2 ft down. TSI 33.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 21.2ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | No reading The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. | |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | No reading The green pigment in algae — a direct measure of how much algae is in the water. | |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 33 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Bear Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
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Stays near Bear Lake
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Fishing Bear Lake
Water quality readings over time
3 seasons of samples on record (2012–2019). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Worsening3 years
Nearby Lakes in Rich County
Frequently asked questions about Bear Lake
Where is Bear Lake?
- Bear Lake is a lake in Rich County, Utah. Its water-quality measurements are published by Utah DWQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Bear Lake?
- Bear Lake in Rich County, Utah has water-quality measurements published by Utah DWQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 21.2 ft visibility.
Is Bear Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Explore Bear Lake across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
13 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2012–2019. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- North American Lake Management Society
NALMS13 samples · 2012–2019
Monitoring station identifiers (1)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.